Gazprom CEO Claims Oil Prices Will Soon Stabilize

Oil prices will soon stabilize, Gazprom Neft’s CEO Alexander Dyukov said on Thursday, despite current price woes that have cratered the price of Brent to below $74 per barrel.

OPEC+ could also choose to make changes to the current production cut deal, which is set to begin the process of unwinding in October, Dyukov said but added that there was no need to rush to any decision.

The current OPEC+ deal and the idea that the group could decide to add production back in as planned in October is precisely what is contributing to current oil price pressures. Although any increases to production quotas—or unwinding of the production cuts—would largely be offset by Libya’s recent production outages, the mere mention of OPEC following through on its plan to add production back has sent prices downward.

Oil prices have dropped off more than $6 per barrel over the last week, with Brent crude sinking to $73.41 as of Thursday morning, from more than $80 per barrel this same time last week.

WTI is now trading just a hair above $70 per barrel, down from nearly $76 per barrel a week ago.

Russia’s Ministry of Energy communicates its quotas set out by OPEC+ to Gazprom Neft. Last year, Gazprom Neft reached its highest-ever sales revenue of 3.5 trillion rubles, with an EBITDA of 1.3 trillion rubles. This performance was achieved despite sanctions and price caps imposed by the West.

Russia’s Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said at the beginning of the year that the country’s oil production would stay mostly the same this year at roughly 10.6 million barrels per day.